Notes. What I think before I design.
Here I write about private clinics, luxury estate agencies, boarding schools, hotels, restaurants and law firms, each time from a different angle: how their clients decide, what a website should do for them, and which internal work AI automation can take off their hands. I publish a note when I have something worth your time.
Understanding AI ·
Nobody has explained to you what AI is. Let us start there.
First note in the “Understanding AI” series: what artificial intelligence is and is not, where it comes from, the three ways of building it and two sentences to explain it to anyone in your company.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
It does not think. It predicts. And that explains almost everything.
Second note in the series: what a language model does inside when you write to it, why its memory has a size, why it would rather guess than say “I don’t know” and what that changes in your company.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
Three different things. One word in the catalogue.
Third note in the series: what separates a program with rules, a robot that imitates clicks and a model that predicts; where each one fits; and the seven questions that take a sales presentation apart.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
Nine verbs, one jagged frontier.
Fourth note in the series: the real capabilities of a language model, where they fit in each department, what the serious studies have measured on productivity and why the same tool helps in one task and harms in the next.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
An agent is a loop. And loops are watched.
Fifth note in the series: the three pieces that turn a model into a useful system, the five patterns used to chain them, what separates an agent from a workflow and why a long chain of correct steps ends up failing.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
The project starts long before you choose a vendor.
Sixth note in the series: the nine steps for taking a process with AI from idea to production without it stalling as a pilot, with what the studies say about buying or building, about data quality and about what your team already does on its own.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
The model is the cheap part.
Seventh note in the series: the full anatomy of the cost, from the token to the hour of review, why the model is usually the smallest item, where the return comes from and how to do the sum with a step-by-step example.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
The pilot does not fail at the end. It fails in the first meeting.
Eighth note in the series: what the studies say about the failure rate of AI projects, the five underlying causes, the early symptoms an executive can see without knowing the technology and the way out of the eternal pilot trap.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
The law already applies. Since before AI.
Ninth note in the series: the three layers of law that affect a company using AI, data protection, the EU regulation and the Swiss approach, with the dates that really concern you, the cases that illustrate each rule and a list of what to do before asking your lawyer.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
A model obeys text. All of the text.
Tenth note in the series: what can go wrong in a system with a language model, from prompt injection to the invoice with no ceiling, with the three public cases that teach the most and a list of measures that do not require a security department.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
What nobody puts in the presentation.
Eleventh note in the series: what is ignored, omitted or considered irrelevant when AI is discussed, and which decides the outcome. Ten blind spots with their source, their symptom and their remedy.
Read the note ›Understanding AI ·
AI is not delegated. It is governed.
Last note in the series: the summary of the previous eleven in seven sentences, the decisions only management can take, the most used governance framework, the seven questions for the committee and a twelve-month agenda with a budget decided on numbers.
Read the note ›Law firms ·
No testimonials, no logos. And still, trust.
Websites in other sectors rely on testimonials, client logos and success stories. A law firm rarely can. Professional secrecy, the ban on naming clients without consent and the ban on promising results prevent it in Switzerland and Spain. What builds trust instead, and what to do about Google reviews.
Read the note ›Law firms ·
The same sentence does not work on both sides of the border.
A law firm with clients in Switzerland and Spain cannot use the same sentence about fees on both sides of the border. In Switzerland, the law forbids agreeing a share of the outcome instead of fees. In Spain, contingency fees have been possible since 2008. Costs work differently too. What each rule says and how a website explains it.
Read the note ›Law firms ·
The assistant that says it is not a lawyer.
Someone asks at eleven at night whether they should accept an inheritance. An AI assistant on a law firm’s website can help them reach the right person, but it cannot answer that. What Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires from August 2026, what the Swiss data protection regulator says, how professional secrecy is protected when a provider is involved, and how the Orvalle assistant behaves.
Read the note ›Law firms ·
A law that reads like a design brief.
Since 4 December 2024, Spain’s Right of Defence Act gives every client the right to be told simply how fees are set, what an adverse costs order could mean and who their lawyer is, with their bar association and number. The Act never mentions websites, yet it reads almost like a design brief. What it requires, what the General Statute of the Spanish Legal Profession adds and how it translates to the screen.
Read the note ›Law firms ·
A letter, a free consultation and a sanction.
In March 2021, a lawyer in Fribourg wrote to tenants who did not know him to offer a free first consultation. Almost four years later, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the disciplinary sanction. The facts, the court’s reasoning, what changes and what does not for a law firm’s website in Switzerland, and what the Spanish rules say about the same thing.
Read the note ›Law firms ·
Names first. Facts later.
Before hearing a case, a law firm has to know it does not already act for the other side. Many law firm websites do it the other way round: they ask for the facts in a text box and check the names later. What the rules say in Switzerland and Spain, why the usual form is a risk, and how to design a first contact that starts with names.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
In Switzerland, the word your patients search for most is the one your website cannot write.
In Switzerland, prescription-only medicines may not be advertised to the public, and botulinum toxin is one. Swissmedic’s guidance in force since 1 March 2026 spells out what cannot appear on a clinic’s website: brand names, before and after photos, discounts and unauthorised indications. What the law and the guidance say, what I do not know, the blind spot in search optimisation, and how I would sell an aesthetic clinic without that word.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
An AI agent does not read your menu at leisure. It looks for a free table at nine, and if it cannot see one, you do not exist.
Since November 2025, Google’s AI Mode has searched reservation platforms for real-time availability and returned a shortlist of restaurants, first in the US and, since April 2026, in the UK. TheFork works inside ChatGPT in Spain and Switzerland. What has been announced, what I do not know, why a beautiful website is not enough, and what I would do with a high-end restaurant or hotel.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
A family pays for boarding school with ETH in mind. Your website shows the school’s average, and the average does not answer the question.
Many families choose a Swiss boarding school with a Swiss university in mind. The International Baccalaureate Diploma opens that door, but with a minimum score excluding bonus points and a subject combination decided two years earlier. What Basel and ETH Zurich require, what I do not know, the blind spot in the timetable, and what I would publish on a school’s website.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
The patient who reads a success rate on your website can open the official registry and look up your centre.
Spain’s Law 14/2006 requires the results of every assisted reproduction centre to be published at least once a year, and the National Activity Registry publishes them by centre, technique and age. What the law, the registry and the medical code of ethics say, what I do not know, the blind spot in translation, and which figure I would put on a clinic’s website.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
In Switzerland, “CO2-neutral living” is no longer a slogan. It is a claim you must be able to prove.
Since 1 January 2025, the Swiss Federal Act on Unfair Competition has required any claim about the climate impact of a company or what it sells to be provable on an objective, verifiable basis. In 2026, the Federal Office for the Environment published how it reads the rule. What the law and the guidance say, what I do not know, and what I would check on a development’s website and brochures.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
The law made Booking give you data. It did not make Booking give you guests.
Since November 2024, the EU Digital Markets Act has required Booking to give hotels free, real-time access to the data their business generates, and to let them make offers to their customers through any channel. What the regulation says, what Booking explains in its compliance report, what I do not know, and where the real opportunity lies: in the days the guest spends at your hotel.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
Asking permission for a photo is the part everyone remembers. Deciding when it comes down is the part that has just cost 3,000 euros.
A decision by the Spanish data protection authority, summarised in April 2026, fined a school operator 6,000 euros: half for publishing images without consent it could prove, half for planning to keep them with no time limit. What the regulator’s guidance and Swiss law say, what I do not know, and how I would handle student photos on a boarding school’s website.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
A drawn green leaf, “sustainable hotel” and “carbon-neutral stay”. Europe has put all three on the list of things that cannot be done.
Directive (EU) 2024/825 asks member states to treat as unfair in all circumstances, from 27 September 2026, sustainability labels without certification, generic environmental claims that cannot be proven and “carbon neutral” claims based on offsetting. Spain has not yet transposed it. What it says, what I do not know, and why I would not wait to rewrite a hotel website.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
The worst reply to a bad review is the one that wins the argument. Because winning it means telling what you know about your patient.
An eye clinic in Spain replied to a Google review by publishing the reviewer’s name, national ID number, phone number and health data. The Spanish data protection authority fined it 7,000 euros. What Spanish and Swiss law say about professional secrecy, what I do not know, and the way of replying I would put in writing in every language.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
Before a Chinese family reads your website, an agent has often read it first. And decides whether your school makes the list.
According to a survey by the UK’s Boarding Schools’ Association of 943 Chinese families, 86.5% relied most on an agent for information, with school websites next at 52.5%. What that tells a Swiss boarding school about who reads its website before the family does, what cannot be inferred from the figure, and the page I would add.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
An AI assistant on a boarding school website has to know how to answer. Above all, it has to know when not to.
An AI assistant on a boarding school website answers questions about fees, visits and documents. But sometimes a message arrives that is not an enquiry. What England has required of its schools since September 2026, what Swiss law has asked of staff since 2019, the English standard for AI in education, and the rules I would write before switching an assistant on.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
In the second half of 2025, foreign non-residents bought 15.1% fewer homes in Spain. They are still the buyers who pay the most per square metre.
Spain’s golden visa ended on 3 April 2025. In the second half of that year, home purchases by foreign non-residents fell 15.1%, while those by foreign residents rose 3.3%. But buyers from abroad paid on average €3,242 per square metre, against €1,963 for those who already live in Spain. What that means for a luxury agency’s website, and the page worth deleting today.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Buyers of a hotel-branded residence pay, on average, a third more than for a comparable home. Above all, what they are buying is a service they have not yet seen.
According to Savills, the world was expected to have around 910 branded residence schemes by the end of 2025, with an average premium of 33% over comparable homes and 39% in resort locations. For the developer and the hotel, that premium can decide whether a project gets built. For the buyer, it is the price of a promise of service they will live with for years. What the website should say to back it up.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
Since January 2026, the price of every outpatient procedure in Switzerland has come from a new tariff. Your clinic does not set it, but it does decide who explains the invoice.
Since 1 January 2026, outpatient treatment in Switzerland has been billed under TARDOC and around 300 flat rates. A private clinic does not set that price. It does decide what each patient knows before the appointment, how many hours its team loses to admin, and who explains the new invoice. The federal health office says those explanations can be found on the websites of insurers and providers. The question is which one.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
In admissions, AI can answer, gather and organise. When it scores a family, EU law treats it as high-risk, and Swiss law already asks for explanations.
AI can take a great deal of work off an admissions team. But a tool that scores, ranks or recommends applicants is on the high-risk list of the EU AI Act, with obligations from December 2027, and Swiss data protection law already requires an automated rejection to be explained today. Where the line is, and what a boarding school’s website should say.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Since April 2026, a five-star hotel in Catalonia outside Barcelona charges €4.50 in tourist tax per person per night. In April 2027 it will be €6, and a guest booking today may not know.
Catalonia raised its tax on tourist stays on 1 April 2026 and raises it again on 1 April 2027. Since October 2026, each town can also add a surcharge. A guest who books today for summer 2027 may pay more than they saw, unless an advance-booking rule applies that hardly anyone explains. What a luxury hotel’s website should show.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
Spain’s 100% tax on buyers from outside the EU never reached a vote. Since 6 October 2026, Congress has listed it as lapsed.
In May 2025, a bill in Spain proposed a 100% tax on property purchases by individuals and companies not resident in the European Union. It waited more than a year for a first debate that never came. With the dissolution of Parliament, Congress has listed it as lapsed since 6 October 2026. The headline, however, is still on Google. What to tell a foreign buyer who has read it.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
Spain plans to delay VeriFactu to October 2028. The clock for business-to-business e-invoicing, on the other hand, is already running.
On 5 October 2026, Spain’s Ministry of Finance announced that it plans to delay the outstanding VeriFactu obligations to October 2028. A day later, the order that starts the calendar for mandatory e-invoicing between businesses came into force: October 2027 for companies invoicing more than 8 million euros, October 2028 for everyone else. What that means for a clinic, a hotel or an estate agency in Spain, and why the invoice starts on the website.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
Since 8 October 2026, letting a home in Spain for a season requires a reason the landlord can prove. And the rule may still lapse.
Royal Decree-law 29/2026 came into force on 8 October: a seasonal let of a home becomes temporary housing, with the reason written into the contract and the burden of proof on the landlord. A decree with the same title fell in Parliament days earlier, the Cortes have been dissolved, and this one must be validated within 30 days. What an estate agency’s website can say today, and what it cannot.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
In August 2026, three in four international tourists arrived in Spain without a package. And those staying in rented homes grew faster than those staying in hotels.
Spain ended 2025 with 96.8 million international tourists and spending that grew more than twice as fast as arrivals. In August 2026, three in four arrived without a package, average spending per tourist stayed flat, and tourists staying in rented homes grew more than twice as fast as those staying in hotels. What those figures tell a luxury hotel about who it is really competing with.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
When a school changes hands, families do not read the press release. They search for what happens to their place.
In January 2026, a group with 125 schools welcomed an international school in Geneva founded in 1961, its third in Switzerland. A year earlier, an investor consortium completed the purchase of another group, valued at US$14.5 billion. For families, a change of owner is not a financial transaction: it is the question of whether the school will stay the same. Who answers it first, and in which language.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
Three clinical systems widely used in Switzerland turned out to have more than 40 medium or severe vulnerabilities. The flaw was not in the hospitals.
In 2025, Switzerland’s national cybersecurity testing institute found more than 40 medium or severe vulnerabilities in three widely used clinical information systems, and some manufacturers asked for confidentiality agreements. Since April 2025, hospitals on cantonal lists must report a cyberattack within 24 hours. A private clinic without a public mandate falls outside that duty and outside the club the hospitals created. What it should demand from its suppliers.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
A booking does not end when the client pays. It ends when they read the confirmation.
Since 2024, Gmail has required authentication from everyone sending email to its users, and since November 2025 it has been enforcing the rule with temporary and permanent rejections. What it requires, why the failure is silent, the detail that turns a newsletter into a permanent change of rules, and why a booking does not end when the client pays.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
Since 1 October 2026, WhatsApp Business charges for replies too. The price per message is the least of it.
Since 1 October 2026, Meta has been charging again for WhatsApp Business replies from the 1,001st each month per number, and the rate depends on the country of the phone receiving the message, not on yours. What changed, what it really costs, why Meta’s own AI agent is billed separately, and how to design the channel so that most conversations start with your client.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
In New York, almost half the restaurants that received a Michelin star had closed by the end of 2019. Among well-reviewed restaurants without a star, one in five.
A UCL study followed 276 elite New York restaurants for two decades: 45.7% of those that received a Michelin star closed, against 19% of those that did not. What the restaurateurs themselves said about rent, staff, suppliers and a new public, what the study does not allow us to conclude, and what I would prepare before the ceremony.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Restaurant no-shows in Spain fell to 3.3% in 2025, according to TheFork. 21% of restaurants already ask for a card as a guarantee. The question is in which system.
According to TheFork, the no-show rate in Spanish restaurants fell to 3.3% in 2025, 21% of restaurants now use a card as a booking guarantee and 7% take prepayment. What that average leaves out, why the memory of who did not turn up belongs to the platform, and why a booking on your own website should be at least as well protected.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
Before you speak to the person who is going to buy from you, someone else already has. For hotels it is the platform; for estate agencies, the portal; for boarding schools, the agent; for clinics, the insurer.
In the four sectors I work with, someone talks to the client before the business does: the platform, the portal, the agent or the insurer. In European hotels, online travel agencies have gone from 19.7% to 29.9% of bookings in twelve years. Why I do not suggest breaking with any intermediary, and why what you can win is the second contact.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
Since 28 June 2025, selling online to consumers in Spain has required an accessible website. The most common failure is also the most elegant.
Since 28 June 2025, Spain’s Law 11/2023 has required e-commerce services for consumers to be accessible, with an exemption for micro-enterprises. What it asks for beyond design, who can complain, what fines the general regime sets, and why the most common website failure is the grey text that passes for good taste in luxury.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
Phillips Exeter charges USD 71,797 for a boarding year and supports half its students with aid. The family looking at Switzerland already knows.
One of America’s best-known academies charges USD 71,797 for a boarding year, admits students without regard to ability to pay and supports almost half of them with aid. A leading Swiss boarding school publishes CHF 164,400. International families do that sum before they write. Why a Swiss school should not compete on price but should explain its own, and where I found the best public explanation of it.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
UBS rates Zurich a high bubble risk and puts Madrid among the fastest risers. Your buyer has already read it.
On 22 September 2026, the UBS real estate bubble index rated Zurich a high risk, Geneva elevated and Madrid moderate, after a real price rise of around 10%. That same morning, headlines were calling Zurich the world’s most dangerous bubble. What the index measures, what it does not say, and why the agency that explains the headline calmly gains more than the one that tries to reassure.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
Spanish law still protects donor anonymity. Consumer genetic testing no longer guarantees it.
Spain keeps egg and sperm donors anonymous, and more than half of the cycles of patients from abroad are egg donation cycles. Meanwhile, Portugal has lifted anonymity, Spain’s own Bioethics Committee has proposed doing the same, three of the countries that send the most patients already recognise a right to know the donor at home, and the European fertility society warns that consumer genetic testing makes anonymity impossible to guarantee. What a clinic should stop promising, and how to prepare without alarming anyone.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
Spain’s medical code of ethics says not to use real patients to sell. And a testimonial can be withdrawn at any time.
The patient testimonial is one of the most common features on a private clinic’s website, and in Spain it is also the most fragile. What the 1996 royal decree, the Supreme Court, a regional decree and the 2022 code of medical ethics say, the data protection detail almost nobody mentions, and what can replace the named before-and-after.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
In 2025, Swiss hotels set their third record in a row. Even so, on average, 43 rooms in every 100 stayed empty.
In 2025, Swiss hotels set their third record in a row for overnight stays. The same statistics show net room occupancy of 56.8%, also a record. And in the following winter season, Asian demand fell by 10% when the conflict in the Middle East escalated. What those three figures together tell a luxury hotel about whom it depends on, and whom it can call.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Your room may be sold cheaper on websites you have never heard of. One hotel in four does not even know whether it happens.
The 2026 European hotel distribution study reports that 51% of hotels see their price undercut on platforms and 44% have their rates redistributed through channels they never chose. The more striking figure is another one: 26% do not know whether it happens to them. Why this hits four- and five-star hotels hardest, what it does at the front desk, and how to spot it before the guest does.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
Spain’s estate agents reported 17 suspicious transactions in 2025. On 28 October, a rule changes for the small ones.
According to Sepblac, real estate intermediaries across Spain reported 17 suspicious transactions in 2025, against 63 in 2024. Developers reported 94, notaries 573. And a Royal Decree published on 8 October 2026 now requires small agencies too to appoint a representative to Sepblac. What the figure says, what changes, and why an agency’s protection lies in being able to show in writing what it examined.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
Google already answers your clients’ questions. The question is whom it cites.
Since March 2025, Google has shown AI summaries in Switzerland and Spain. A Pew study in the United States found that when one appears, clicks on results fall by almost half, and hardly anyone clicks the sources inside the summary. Why that does not make a company’s content worthless, but changes what it is for: being the source that gets cited, and converting the visit that still arrives.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
In Switzerland, the data protection fine does not hit the company. It hits a person.
Data protection makes most people think of GDPR fines in the millions against large groups. The Swiss act sets fines of up to CHF 250,000, and it aims them first at the people who act. What the law says, when the company pays instead, and why a harmless-looking online tool can become one person’s problem.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
The price of a boarding school is not a number. It is a calendar.
Families compare boarding schools by the annual fee. What decides whether they sign is everything around it: registration, deposit, supplements, insurance, the payment calendar and the rules for leaving. One school publishes all of it in a clear contract. Why that should be on every school’s website, and why the real decision window for families switching school may close in March.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
On the portal you rent visibility. Your website is yours.
Property portals bring reach and charge well for it: idealista was sold in 2024 at a valuation of €2.9 billion, and in Switzerland, where the portal’s accounts are public, average revenue per agency rose 14.7% in 2025. Why I would not cancel any portal, but would invest every year in pages the agency owns, and which number is missing to decide how much.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
In 2029 the imputed rent tax goes. For holiday homes, a new calculation begins.
Switzerland’s abolition of the imputed rental value is often read as a tax cut. For a holiday home the sums are more open: the maintenance deduction goes, the interest deduction usually goes too, and the mountain cantons are preparing a special property tax. What is settled, what is still open and why an agency should answer the question on its own website before Google does.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
Your buyer is comparing Zurich with Milan, not with the agency across the street.
Knight Frank’s index for the first quarter of 2026 puts Zurich, Madrid, Geneva and Lisbon at the top of Europe over the past year, and Milan at the top over five. The reasons it gives appear on no property listing: tax, financing and lifestyle. Why a luxury agency’s website competes with other cities first, and what it should say.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
The day the insurance stopped paying, your patient was already talking to someone else.
Since FINMA demanded transparency in supplementary insurance billing, Swiss insurers have renegotiated their contracts with hospitals and clinics, and some have gone months without an agreement. During those months, the insurer talks to your patients and points them to alternatives. What the insurers themselves put in writing, and what is worth preparing before it happens.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
Your growth comes from abroad. Almost no one knows why.
Private assisted reproduction in Spain earns more from the same number of cycles, and the demand that keeps growing comes from abroad. The 2023 national registry counts almost 35,000 cycles for patients living in other countries, yet for 90.4% of them there is no record of why they came. Among the few cases recorded, price matters less than most people assume.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Spain’s guest register does not start at reception. It starts when guests book.
Royal Decree 933/2021 requires hotels, holiday rentals and platforms in Spain to report guest data to the Interior Ministry within 24 hours of the booking and of arrival. In June 2026 Brussels opened proceedings against Spain, finding the data excessive. Until that is resolved, the rule stays in force, and the difference between an irritating formality and a flawless arrival lies in how your website asks for it.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
A fine punishes. It pays nothing back.
Spain’s competition authority, the EU Court of Justice, the Swiss Price Supervisor and a collective action in Amsterdam: four fronts against Booking. None of them puts money back into your hotel on its own. Spanish law gives the injured party a right to claim, with time limits worth knowing, and since September 2026 Booking has said in writing that prices on your website do not count for its ranking. What each front means, and what you can do today.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
The delay is real. It does not cover your chatbot.
In July the EU moved its high-risk AI rules to December 2027 and August 2028. Many companies read that as a general delay. It is not: the transparency rules for chatbots and realistic AI images have applied since August 2026, and Switzerland already reaches a similar rule through its data protection law. What applies now, and where clinics, schools, hotels and agencies meet high risk without noticing.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
The decisive question is not where the server is. It is who holds the key.
Many vendors sell “everything stays in Switzerland” as the answer to data protection. Swiss law allows data to be disclosed abroad under clear conditions. Professional secrecy is stricter, and it applies to Swiss servers too. For clinics, that means choosing a provider on its contract and on who holds the key, not on a flag, and that includes the website’s contact form.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
Spain scrapped the national rental number. It did not scrap the people watching every listing.
Ruling 620/2026 of Spain’s Supreme Court struck down the national registration number for short-term rentals. Many headlines called it the end of red tape. What fell is a procedure: the digital gateway that receives platform data still stands, and the EU regulation has applied since the day after the ruling. For agencies selling Spanish homes to international buyers, the opportunity is to explain it properly, first.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
In retail, one franc is a loss leader. In Swiss medicine, it can reach your licence.
An advert for an orthodontic check-up at one franc ended in a formal warning, upheld in 2019 by the Administrative Court of St. Gallen. In retail it would be a clever way in. In Swiss medicine it touches the operating licence. For clinics the rule is simple: inform, do not lure, and that includes the website.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
Your students’ residence permits also depend on one sentence on your website.
For students from outside the EU and EFTA, a listing in the Swiss Private School Register is the shortcut through the permit process. The register requires every piece of advertising to state clearly what kind of recognition a qualification has. A website is advertising, in every language, including the translations nobody at the school can read.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
The families leaving British schools over VAT are rarely your market. The ones deciding at 16 are.
British private schools have lost pupils two years running since VAT arrived. Many Swiss schools hope those families will come to them. The numbers suggest a different target: the families who reconsider at 16, and the European families who now face VAT and visas in England.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
Everyone is talking about the foreign buyer. The foreign seller has more to lose.
The Lex Koller reform is mostly read as a problem for foreign buyers. The federal government’s own figures tell a different story: a foreign owner of a Swiss holiday home could find fewer buyers tomorrow. What is proposed, what is still open and what an agency can do now.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
CHF 191 against CHF 855. In between lies what your clinic now has to prove.
A figure from a FINMA on-site review shows where Swiss supplementary hospital insurance is heading: what is not described, valued and documented will no longer be paid. And the person who pays the premium almost never reads that description.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
The three-minute rule binds a few. The part that binds you passed almost unnoticed.
Everyone talks about Spain’s law requiring a human within three minutes, which only binds large companies. Almost nobody mentions the article it changed for everyone else: fifteen days to answer, one more channel to staff, and a duty that has existed since 2007.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
Your profession doesn’t draw the line. What you do in the deal does.
The revised Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act does not cover every estate agent, but it does reach many in the luxury market. Where the line runs, what the law asks for, why 1 December matters and what changes on the website and in the CRM.
Read the note ›AI, data and rules ·
The enquiries you lose make no noise.
A Sunday-night scene, what an AI assistant really does with incoming enquiries and what has been measured. Then the blind spots, from Air Canada to WhatsApp, worth knowing before you sign.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Your website decides the commission.
Many guests find a hotel on a platform and visit its website before booking. The law now lets hotels offer better terms there; whether the guest books with you depends on what they find.
Read the note ›Boarding schools ·
What families look for on a boarding school website.
Families choose a Swiss boarding school from abroad, months ahead and often in a second language. What they look for on the website before asking to visit, and why booking should happen in their own time zone.
Read the note ›Luxury real estate ·
Buyers are not what is scarce. Mandates are.
In luxury property, buyers are rarely what is scarce; mandates are. What an agency’s website must show to win an owner’s trust, from Marbella to Gstaad.
Read the note ›Private clinics ·
Your clinic’s first consultation happens without you.
Private patients in Switzerland compare clinics at night, on their phones, without speaking to anyone. Why the Medical Professions Act means winning them over with facts, and why they end up with the clinic that answers first.
Read the note ›